Postgraduate Publishing studies at Edinburgh Napier University. INDUSTRY APPROVED Publishing degrees (accredited by the Professional Publishers Association and Creative Skillset). MSc Publishing was the first Publishing programme in the UK to be accredited by the Professional Publishers Association (PPA). It is now accredited by Creative Skillset (only one of two courses to hold this award). MSc Magazine Publishing is the only course of its kind in Scotland and is the only publishing course in the UK to be accredited by the PPA. The PPA is the lead body for best practice in training, development and people management for the magazine and business media industry.

My Placement at LBF

Among my ten days internship at MaClean Veit Associates in Moffat, the most excited days are 11st – 13rd April when I severed for China Youth Press International. Ltd as a Sales Assistance at stand K610 at London Book Fair 2011. Honestly, this is my first time to visit an international book fair, not to mention to participate in the fair as a staff. CYPI was established in London in March 2007. Now it publishes books in five areas: Travel; Photo Album; Creative Design; Classical Art & Culture; Contemporary Art & Design.

I got the train down on 9th and lived in YHA London Earls Court Hostel, where is 10 minutes walking time from the exhibition centre. On the next day, three staff from CYPI and I spend a whole morning in arranging the stand. When putting books on the selves, they discussed a long time about books’ position since it needed skills to attract more visitors’ attention in limited time. Sometimes, a big deal just starts from an illustration which first catches his/her sight among myriad ones. My task for the first day was to remember every book’s specifications and introduction as much as possible. A simple task for them because they made the books, but became difficult for a new comer. I studied until 11pm and went to bed with an uneasy heart. But when the fair was over, I found surprisingly that I had known every book just like I myself published it!

On the following three days, everything went well as planned. We everyday hold a morning meeting before the fair opened and an evening one after supper. Each of us was assigned with different and specific tasks. It was impossible for me to take part in a formal negotiation or decide which books to buy, but the three staff was so kind that they were willing to tell some details of every activity they made. That provided me with a real insight into publishing industry.

In the second afternoon, we held a small party for CYPI’s distributor in UK. With full consideration of the guests’ number, gender, and party lasting time, we just spend 2 hours to prepare it and at last every guest enjoyed it very much.

In a word, the internship was an invaluable experience. It offered me a great opportunity to know how the copyright trading was carried out and how a Chinese publishing company went out in a book fair although what I did were slight things. Besides, they paid me 100 pounds; it is good, isn’t it?